Keeping Fit: Study says alternate intensity of your workouts

Monday

Sep 20, 2010 at 12:01 AMSep 20, 2010 at 8:16 PM

From an activity perspective, it is better to stand than to sit, to walk than to stand, and to run than to walk. Promoting higher levels of physical fitness means your exercise program must be progressive.

Wayne L. Westcott

From an activity perspective, it is better to stand than to sit, to walk than to stand, and to run than to walk. If you have a sedentary lifestyle, making the move from no exercise to some exercise is certainly commendable and beneficial.

Establishing a regular exercise routine is the first step towards improving your physical fitness. However, once you become a committed exerciser, it is important to periodically examine your training program in terms of effectiveness.

Promoting higher levels of physical fitness means your exercise program must be progressive. That is, the training intensity that advanced you from level one to level two is unlikely to advance you from level two to level three. To achieve a higher level of fitness, you will probably need to increase your exercise intensity.

Most of us recognize that this is definitely the case for improving muscle strength with resistance exercise. We know that we must increase our training weight loads in order to increase our muscle strength. Therefore, we generally use a resistance that enables us to perform between 8 and 12 repetitions.

When we can complete 12 repetitions with proper technique, we raise the resistance by about 5 percent to stimulate further strength gains. Doing more and more repetitions with the same weight is not nearly as effective for muscle building as progressively increasing the exercise resistance.

Unfortunately, most people don’t realize that the progression principle also applies to aerobic activity. Although endurance exercise obviously requires a period of continuous movement (walking, cycling, swimming, etc.), improvement is also associated with the training intensity.

A recent study involving overweight women clearly demonstrated the importance of endurance exercise intensity for losing weight and for reducing fat in the abdominal area.

Researchers from the University of Virginia divided the women into two matched groups. All of the women participated in a 16-week exercise program in which they progressively increased their walking distance to about 4 miles a day, 5 days a week, and used the same amount of energy (400 calories) during each exercise session.

One group walked at a relatively low intensity (slow to moderate pace) five days a week. The other group walked at a relatively low intensity two days a week, and at a relatively high intensity (moderate to fast pace) three days a week.

Although both groups performed the same amount of walking and burned the same number of calories, the results were significantly different. The women who exercised only at the lower intensity did not lose bodyweight nor reduce their abdominal fat. However, the women who trained at both the lower intensity and the higher intensity lost weight and reduced fat.

This study shows that exercise intensity plays a key role in the outcomes of aerobic activity. It also suggests that exercise-related fat loss may be more complex than the total number of calories expended.

It would appear that performing regular aerobic activity at low effort levels may not provide enough physiological stimulus for improving body composition. This may, at least, partly explain why some people seem to experience little benefit from a regular exercise program.

On the other hand, this research indicates that it is not necessary to train at high-effort levels every exercise session. Essentially, a combination of higher intensity and lower intensity exercise is recommended for a sensible and successful fitness program.

We have known for years that alternating higher intensity and lower intensity training sessions is the most effective means for conditioning athletes. As far back as the 1970s, when I coached track at Penn State University, we used a “hard day, easy day” training protocol for all of our runners. We are now learning that this same training philosophy may be beneficial for exercisers at all levels.

My personal experience indicates that one higher intensity training session each week is enough for improving physical fitness and maintaining a relatively high level of aerobic ability. For example, you could do two or three low-effort exercise sessions coupled with one or two high-effort exercise sessions per week for an excellent program of cardiovascular conditioning.

If you are maintaining a satisfactory level of physical fitness, there is little reason to change your training program. However, if you have not attained your exercise objectives, you may consider integrating at least one high-intensity training session into your weekly workouts.

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